How Cristobal Balenciaga Became King of the Paris Fashion Scene (part one)

Hey team,

LaToya here! Welcome back to The Strategy Files, the newsletter where I study the most successful people in, art, music, fashion, and culture.  You apply it to your startup, agency, or side hustle. It’s a team effort!

Today’s lessons come from a man who was incredibly bold, strategic, ambitious and focused - fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga.  Shout out to Modupe, who writes  The Fashion Operator, for the idea.

Today’s Strategies:

• Learn through apprenticeships

• Luck + Hard Work === Success

• If you’re in the right location for your goals, be a sponge.  If you’re not, relocate.

• Build authentic relationships with people who can positively impact your business

Paris had been the fashion capital of the world for 300 years when Cristobal Balenciaga arrived in 1936.  The city was ripe with talent; Christian Dior worked as a fashion illustrator, selling sketches to French Magazines. Elsa Schiaparelli collaborated with Salvador Dali; the collaboration helped land her designs on the cover of British Vogue. Coco Chanel was so in demand that she was offered a million-dollar deal to dress Hollywood movie stars.  

Cristobal was so ahead of the existing talent pool that Dior famously called him “The Master of Us All”. But how did he do it? How did he move from a smaller market and dominate the biggest market in his field?

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